Madam, - France's decision that March 10th is to become an annual memorial day is a welcome step in that country's efforts to engage with its slave trading past (The Irish Times, January 31st).
Making the announcement, President Jacques Chirac said that slavery was "a wound. . . a tragedy. . . an abomination perpetuated by Europeans for several centuries, through an unspeakable trade between Africa, the Americas and the islands of the Indian oceans".
Perhaps what is less well known is our own country's shameful past during the same period, when many of the ships involved in the African slave trade also visited Irish ports.
During the heyday of the Irish slave trade (1649-1657), slave gangs roamed the countryside, rounding up women and children casually from all over Ireland for sale as slaves in the Caribbean, Virginia, and New England.
The people of France have admirably sought to mark and confront their own slave trading past. Maybe it is time that Ireland began an examination of that trade's effects on our own country.
Not to do so is to overlook a significant part of our nation's history. - Is mise,
PROINSIAS MAC FHEARGHUSA, An Uaimh, An Mhí